[EVA] The EoE Situation

[Carl Gustav Horn]

On May 4, 2007, at 10:30 PM, Michael Camilleri wrote:

> Brendan Jamieson wrote:
>
>> I don't believe in moral and ethical relativism. SEELE's means and
>> ends were both evil and morally bankrupt regardless of how they  
>> viewed
>> themselves or their goals. There needs to be a baseline that
>> determines a just/noble/moral/ethical concept versus an evil one.
>> People rarely believe that they are evil themselves, but that doesn't
>> mean that they aren't. Sure, SEELE truly believed that they were  
>> doing
>> what was best for mankind. But they are horribly misguided.
>
> At the risk of this devolving into a philosophical discussion on  
> good and evil that goes nowhere can a person be evil if they don't  
> realise it? I can agree that actions might be evil but it seems to  
> me that if a person honestly believes themselves to be good when  
> they aren't then they're delusional, not evil.

The problem with this, I feel, is that so many who do evil think of  
themselves as good. We have an image of villains rubbing their hands  
and cackling over their evil, but real-life villains, large and  
small, tend to believe they're doing the right thing, and that it's  
their victims who are wrong or evil. Hitler and Stalin are just the  
most extreme examples of this; the abusive parent is a more common  
one. Therefore I feel it's better to judge evil by actions and  
results, rather than by self-image and intent. Self-image and intent  
may be mitigating circumstances, but they shouldn't be confused with  
the issue of whether a crime has been committed.

--C.